NOTE-TAKING, NOTE-MAKING AND SUMMARY WRITING

A. NOTE-TAKING
Attendance at lectures is of paramount importance to a student that is desirous of success.
Knowledge, skill and ability are basically acquired in the lecture room. Of course, a lot can be
acquired outside the lecture room too but the primary place of acquiring knowledge in a
tertiary institution is the lecture room. Students of higher institutions are expected to be skilled
in the art of note-taking and note-making. The difference between success and failure often
starts from the way a student organises himself/herself with respect to note-taking. To this end,
it is recommended that you pay careful attention to the following guidelines.

Pre-lecture Preparations
A lecture becomes more interesting and rewarding for a student if he/she has prepared
adequately for it. To prepare for lectures, a student needs to have the course outline which
states clearly the topics to be treated on a particular course in a given semester. At the foot of
the course outline, a reading list is usually suggested. Equipped with this reading list, a serious
student is able to embark on a pre-lecture preparation of the different topics.

Pre-lecture preparation is crucial to the understanding of most lectures. It also has obvious
advantages such as being in a better position to ask relevant questions in class and contribute
more meaningfully than course-mates who have not prepared at all. Lectures become more
interesting and worthwhile to a student who has spent time and scholarship doing pre-lecture
reading. Lecturers are also fascinated and encouraged to do more research when they teach
students who appreciate expository scholarship. On the other hand, they are disenchanted
when it seems they are teaching a pack of dull academic robots who only take in knowledge
and have little or nothing to share in class.

It is very rewarding, therefore, for students to attempt to familiarise themselves with the topics
on the course outline well ahead of the actual lectures. This will make it easier for them to
follow the lecturer’s treatment of the topic in class. It is normal for some topics to be easy to
understand, while others are not so easy. Pre-lecture survey enables you to prepare your mind
especially for clarification of the difficult topics during the treatment in class.

Coping with the Lecture Proper

Lecturers impart knowledge to students. Lecturers share their experience and present their
findings on research they have carried out. The styles of lectures vary from one lecturer to
another. Lecturers are distinct human beings with different personalities. Some are slow in
speech, while others are extremely fast; some are patient, while others are intolerant. You are
the one who wishes to learn; hence the onus is on you to get the most from your lectures no
matter their peculiarity. Some lecturers spend the whole hour dictating their notes; some teach
partially with prepared notes and partially extemporaneously; others do not consult any notes
at all in the course of the lecture (they just speak on as if conversing with friends). It is the duty
of the student to adjust to a lecturer’s style and peculiarities.

Lecturers are unlikely to adjust to individual student’s preferences; it is the student that should
adjust. While some lecturers have a good sense of humour, others do not; some speak loud
with deep baritone voice, while others are very soft spoken. Each style of lecturing has peculiar
advantages and disadvantages for the students. For instance, while you may be able to record
much of the important points when the lecturer dictates, there is the tendency to miss salient
points when the lecturer is chatty. A student should never get too carried away by a jovial or
chatty lecturer. Also some lecturers have a bad habit of digressing or deviating from the topic
of the day. You should be able to distinguish such digressions from the main topic of the day
and take your notes in a manner that will not bring about confusion when you are revising for
the examination.

Effective Note-taking
Note-taking refers to the act of writing down the important points made by a lecturer in the
course of teaching in a classroom by students. Apart from lectures, notes can also be taken
from books, journals and periodicals. When you take notes from a book, always write down
the name(s) of the author(s), the publisher and the year of publication.

Every student should realise that listening to lectures without taking notes is a smooth path to
failure. The reasons for note-taking in a lecture are three:

 It serves as a summary of the basic facts of a lecture;

 It aids your memory to do a quick revision; and
 It enhances your concentration perception of what is being taught.

Many students attempt to put down notes that are too detailed during lectures. This approach
is wrong because you cannot listen properly and write extensively at the same time. The best
way is to write down only key facts such as dates, names, formulae, etc. When the lecture is
over, you can then attempt to write a comprehensive note.

Some basic steps in note-taking techniques are listed below:

 Avoid distraction. Move away from where you can be distracted and sit at a
comfortable place. Usually, to get a comfortable place, you have to come early to class.
 Sit where you can hear well. Make sure you are seated within the listening range of
the lecturer so that you can concentrate better when the lecture is in progress. Nothing
else should engage your attention but the lecture.
 Note the title or theme of the lecture. This is instructive as it guides you on what
the lecture centres on.

A student should realise that:

 Verbatim recording is not note-taking. Always record the salient points and some
subordinate points that are relevant.
 Avoid irrelevant illustrations and obvious digressions.
 Make use of abbreviations and symbols to enhance your speed in writing. You may even
devise personal abbreviations that are consistent and easy to understand.
 Take note of semantic markers often used by some lecturers to introduce relevant
 points. Examples of such markers include:

I want to emphasise that …

Another point is …
It is worthy of mention that …
Let me say this again or I repeat …

 Don’t get carried away by a showy lecturer or get put off by a dull lecturer. Remember
it is not the clothes that make the wo/man. Many a dull lecturer has a lot more to offer
than a show master.
 Always remember that you have come to learn and not to be entertained; so, while
others are laughing their heads off or nodding off, keep taking your notes.
 Learn to recognise main points and use them as sub-headings in your notes.
 Record ideas in logical or sequential order.
 If you miss a point, leave space for it so that you can fill it up when you check up with
colleagues later on (but do not leave this for too long).
 Check and compare your notes with one or two smart/thorough members of your
class.
The following are some useful abbreviations:

e.g. - example i.e. - that is btn - between

NB - note well dif - different ch - chapter
ed - editor no. - number 12thC - 12th century
mil - military educ - education sth - something
esp - especially imp - important incl - including
orig - original incl - including xcl - excluding
cd - could shd - should lit - literature

B. NOTE-MAKING
Note-making is not as laborious as note-taking because it is not done under pressure. After
listening to a lecture, the student should not delay in making his/her notes. This is important
because the facts will still be fresh and, therefore, very easy to recall. A student who has a thirst
for learning would obtain more information from other sources to complement what he/she
has already taken down during lectures. This eclectic approach to making your notes will
ensure that you have adequate information on the course of study. In making their notes,
students should realise that they are documenting a permanent tangible record that may outlive
them and be used by generations yet unborn. Adequate care should, therefore, be taken in
doing this. A detailed explanation of the lecture written in legible handwriting should be done. It
is a fact that a neat note with legible handwriting provides an attraction for reading.

Two Useful Hints

1. Reconciliation of Lecture with Course Outline
While many lecturers are faithful to the course outline, others are not so meticulous. As the
ultimate examiner may not be your lecturer, it is useful to reconcile what you were taught in
class with what is in the course outline. (This is why it is very beneficial to have copies of your
course outlines.) If the lecture is defective or does not measure up to the expectation in the
course outline, it may be necessary for you to read the recommended texts and extract notes
from them to complement your lectures.

2. Consulting Past Questions

Most ‘A’ students are thorough in their preparation. The ultimate advantage of a good note is
to enable students to excel in the final examination. Past questions always come in handy,
especially if they were set by your course lecturer (assuming he/she is the course examiner as
well). Look at the format and style of the questions and take your cue from them to assist you
in your note-taking and ultimate preparation for the examination.

C. SUMMARY WRITING
Procedures for Summary Writing
The first step you should take to write a good précis is to read the passage several times and
ascertain what the subject matter of the passage is. It is believed that you cannot fully
understand a passage until you have read it completely with the deepest concentration. It is
after a complete understanding of the passage that you will be able to discover the way in which
the data is organised, the sequence of thought that is developed and the relationship of one to
another.

(a) Underlining
One method to adopt in reading for summarisation is to underline key words and concepts, as
such concepts and words so underlined are good clues which indicate not only the organisation
of thought but also the topic of the passage.

(b) Formulation of Title

Another method is to formulate your title which must point to the subject matter of the
passage. It is recommended that you give a title to your summary even if it is not asked for.
Read the passage as directed by the first step in the foregoing paragraph; it is from your
complete understanding of the passage that you will derive the title of your summary. What
you can do to get the title is to stop a little, after having read the passage several times, and ask
yourself, what is the story/passage about? Naturally, your answer will begin with: ‘the story is
about …’

(c) Slow Repetitious Reading

The next stage is to read the passage again very slowly and carefully. As pointed out before,
underline the important points at this stage. These are points you are going to include in your
finished piece. Note that at this stage you should be reading for the general meaning of
individual words or phrases, and for the structure of the item and the development of its ideas.
The important points in this way will be discovered. An important point is the point that is
germane to the delivery of the central theme. If you leave it out, you will dismember the
message of the passage completely.
(d) Bringing out the Relevant Points
Another is to write the rough draft of the principal points. A useful technique is to identify the
key topics of the paragraph as a starting point. Avoid copying out the language of the original if
the question requires you to use ‘your own words’.

(e) Writing of First Draft

The fifth step is concerned with the use of your notes to write a continuous and grammatical
summary of the passage. Substitute familiar words for unusual ones in the original. Your points
should be selected on the basis of the categories: essential, relevant but not essential, irrelevant.
Your summary at this stage may be longer than required, as the stage is not ‘the end’; continue
with further writing down of the required pieces of information. You can shorten it by
eliminating detail and cutting off irrelevant words, omit all figurative language, questions and
examples or particularised statement until the summary is of the required length. Count the
words in your summary to ensure that you do not exceed the word limit.

(f) Comparison of Summary with Passage

The sixth stage has to do with the comparing of your summary with the original passage with a
view to establishing their similarity in meaning, communication and particularly in structure.
The two of them must be seen to contain the same message, communicate the message in the
same way and retain the message in the same order of its presentation.

(g) Final Reading of Draft

The seventh stage demands that you read your draft again to ensure that it is intelligible to a
reader who has never seen the original. It should be in readable English. That is, it should be
grammatically sound, in full sentence form and properly punctuated. Use linking words to
reduce the loss of smoothness which may be caused by the congestion of the salient points.
The use of connectives will prevent the use of too many short sentences and assist you to keep
the paragraph of normal length.

(h) Writing out the Final Copy

In the eighth stage, you are advised to write out the final copy of your summary in your own
words. There is nothing you can do about some specialist terms like oxygen, inflation, capsule
and others, but to lift them directly from the original passage without attempting to find
alternatives to them. Do not copy sentences and phrases from the passage except you find
them unavoidable and unalterable as in some passages in the Pure Sciences. Expressing their
sense in your own words may reduce their qualitative meaning.

(i) Taking Note of the Number of Words

The last thing you should do as the ninth step is to record the number of words in your
summary at the end in brackets. Do not count the number of words of the title of your
summary; it is usually not added to the total number of words in your précis.